You’ve been on the job three weeks and it is a disaster. Your boss has morphed into Mr. Hyde and beyond. Your co-workers are confirmed — and skilled — games players and you can’t even identify who’s playing what. They clearly don’t like you. It was a terrible mistake to take the job. What can you do that won’t deep-six your career for the next ten years (the amount of time the job will be on your resume)? You ask yourself, can I quit my job now?

Before you quit please do the following:

1. Quitting a job is more a financial than a career decision. Can you support yourself for six to nine months if you quit with two weeks notice. (They may offer you two weeks pay to go quietly — or even more.)

2. Are your contacts from the last/current job hunt still warm? Begin to canvass immediately. Tell anyone who’ll listen you’re back on the market.

3. What did you learn from this error in judgment or self-delusion? These people haven’t changed since you arrived. You seriously misjudged them and the organizational culture. Nothing is more important than analyzing how that happened — unless you want to be a serial self victimizer and we hope/think you don’t.

4. Is the job problem politics, chemistry, or skills? You need to identify what is not working and give it a name(s). Maybe you aren’t as malleable as you thought. Most people aren’t. They can’t do a 180 in attitudes and style in comfort — or at all!

5. What change in the current job would make you happier? This is what you need to look for in your next job. The more disconnects and miseries you can name the better prepared you are to evaluate the next job. I once worked for a boss obsessed with attitude. He wanted someone who behaved as if he were an escapee from a positive thinking seminar. Every day had to be g r e a t! I”m a writer. Writers aren’t cheerful. We’re mildly depressed at all times. It was the worst possible fit.

6. Do not stress over leaving pronto. You know the only reason you’re not out the door today is you fear the question, “Why did you leave so soon?” Here’s the answer. “I realized in a few weeks that the job was a terrible fit. I’d made a mistake in taking it. The only honorable thing to do was to resign and find a better fit. The quicker the company could replace me with someone more suitable, the better.” Note: It is very difficult to argue with someone who behaves honorably. Would you like to ask why you didn’t stay a year torturing yourself and everyone else? Only on reality TV.